Distinctly Montana Magazine

24 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 4 to get there, and the hardiness to make it there. And in, say, 1908, getting to Yellowstone, for those who would travel by rail, meant a stop in Livingston, the original first National Park in the world. From there they would board the Yellowstone Park Branch Line and travel to Cinnabar or, after 1903, to an established but for 20 years largely bypassed outpost called Gardiner, and then onto 16-person stagecoaches that would take travelers to the lodges or camps therein. The National Pacific Railroad sleeper cars that arrived at Liv- ingston may have been comfortable enough as train rides go*, but the subsequent stagecoach ride bordered on roughing it. Opportunities to perform one's toilet were going to be rare, visi- tors were made to understand. Those who were partial to taking the occasional bath would do well to seek lodgings in Living- ston, as there would be no more baths for some time. At its peak, when as many as 30,000 people a year passed through Livingston on their way to Yellowstone, more than twenty hotels served the area. Crowned heads, presidents, statesmen, writers, and painters all stayed in Livingston hotels. Some of the hotels' names live on today, like the Grabow or the Murray. Others, like the Grand and its adjoining opera house, or the Albermarle, with its three-story aviarium, are gone now. *The relative comfort of the train ride could be variable; Rudyard Kipling, on an 1892 trip to Yellowstone, saw a conductor put a man's head through "a double plate-glass window" before leaving him, "spurting blood at every hair—a scarlet-headed and ghastly sight," at the next stop. At its peak, when as many as 30,000 people a year PASSED THROUGH LIVINGSTON ON THEIR WAY TO YELLOWSTONE, MORE THAN TWENTY HOTELS SERVED THE AREA. PHOTO COURTESY OF PATRICIA GRABOW

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